The Parting of the Styx
by Zoe Nightshade
Summary: Every demigod in Camp Half-Blood knows that there's no way to not be claimed by their thirteenth birthday, so Catherine is more excited than ever as hers draws nearer. But her excitement turns to disappointment when the day comes and she isn't claimed.
1. Chapter 1

A/N: Okay, I wrote a daughter of Artemis story. Stone me. I know that most people hate daughter of Artemis stories because they are unrealistic, and I completely get that, but it is fun to think about what would happen if she did. I also know that people don't like daughter of Artemis stories because the plot is way overused, and yes, it is way overused, but not as much as Percabeth is. I have a community of daughter of Artemis stories. Currently, it has seventeen, this is the eighteenth, so basically, there are around twenty usually, much less than the amount of Percabeth fics.

Ω

A young girl, beautiful as the moon above her, looked at a small bundle in her arms - clearly a baby. But it was no look of love; it was a look of hate, anger, and a little guilt.

She set it down on a flat rock, paused for a moment, and then took out her bow. With a murderous gleam in her eye, she pointed it at the small child, and loaded an arrow.

"No!" The voice came from behind. An older girl jumped out from behind a tree. "How could you?"

Seeing this girl was a surprise. She hadn't seen her since she left with all the rest at the news, and didn't expect to see her again.

"I thought you had left," the girl said, her bow still pointed at the baby. "Left - like all the rest."

"How could you?" the older girl repeated. She looked at the baby. "She's done nothing wrong!"

"So?"

"Who are you? That thing there," she said pointing at the bundle on the rock,"is innocent! Therefore, you are her protectress."

"She isn't innocent," the girl said. "Look what she's done to me!"

"My lady, _she _has not done anything to you. What's been done is your own fault."

The girl looked at her murderously, like she was thinking of switching her bow's aim to the older girl.

"Put down the bow," the older girl ordered, her voice shaking as if she wasn't used to ordering this particular girl around. She looked surprised when the girl listened, lowering her bow, but keeping the deadly arrow loaded.

"My lady, you are not, _not allowed_ to. You were not under something like the pact of the Big Three. You were allowed to, but before, you chose not to. Apparently," the girl said looking down at the baby, "You changed your mind. _You _changed your mind. _She _didn't."

"Thalia, get out," the younger girl ordered. "Now."

"A person has to _die _simply because you are embarrassed?"

For the first time, the younger girl looked pained.

"I can't have her around," she said. "I just can't."

She picked a hunting knife out of her pocket. She looked at it, and then at the baby, who was wide awake now, but silent.

"Honestly," said Thalia glancing at the bow and the hunting knife in her goddess's hands. "Do you _really _want to shoot her?"

Artemis looked at the baby, and then at the bow. She imagined what would happen if she were to shoot her; the Protectress of the Innocent shooting a baby simply for being born. But then again, she couldn't live with this baby alive; there on Earth to remind her of what she had done.

"I can't bring myself to kill her," she said. "but I can't bring myself to keep her alive."

"Maybe you could leave her somewhere and hope someone finds her."

Artemis had thought about that, but there was one problem, cruel to even be considered as a fact hindering her from going though with the plan.

"Because she would survive then."

Suddenly, the Thalia exploded.

"That should be the point, shouldn't it?" she yelled not even thinking of the consequences given to people who challenged gods. "But no, all you care about is your stupid popularity, and of course, if your image is a stake, you're willing to _kill_ your own flesh and blood! Just like daughter of Aphrodite."

Normally, a goddess, this goddess in particular, would have killed this bold girl for her impertinence, but then, she just stood still.

She just stood there for a while. The baby started crying. Her former lieutenant went to pick it up, but the goddess slapped her hand.

"Don't," she said. The baby continued crying.

How could she kill it? She was supposed to be the Protectress of the Innocent. Maybe just say it was a being she was supposed to protect, but then again, she wasn't known as an understanding or a sympathetic goddess. She, who had killed fourteen children because of something their _mother_ had done. Although she hadn't cared then, she was not proud of that story being on her record. If she killed this baby, it would be dying, like those fourteen children, for something its mother, the very woman who was considering its murder, had done.

Then, the goddess thought about life if the girl stayed. She couldn't give her to her father. She just couldn't. It would be too painful, even if she just left the baby by his doorstep without having to see him. Her brother, Apollo, would never look at her the same way. He would tease her, and since Artemis and Apollo were immortal, even long after the girl's death, Apollo would never let her forget. If she didn't kill this baby, she would pay forever. It was just a mortal. It would die anyway.

"I have to kill it," the goddess said to her former huntress.

"No," Thalia whispered, but it was useless. She couldn't challenge Artemis and survive, and she hated to admit it, she valued her life above this half-blood's.

Artemis lifted her knife, but stopped. She couldn't stab it; not because it was her's, but because she just couldn't bring herself to do it. She thought for a second, and then made up her mind.

"Thalia," she said picking up the baby. "Take her somewhere and leave her."

"Where?"

"Anywhere. I don't care. On the top of an abandon mountain, in an abandon cave, anywhere without people."

"Yes, my lady," Thalia said.

Artemis looked at her. She knew Thalia. Thalia would simply take the baby to someone who could care for it; most likely to an adult demigod's house.

"Thalia," Artemis said. "Give me the baby. I'll deal with it myself."

Of course, Thalia couldn't disobey her former mistress, so she reluctantly handed her the baby, knowing it would probably die because she gave it to its mother anyway.

Artemis summoned a nymph that was in tree from near by.

"Take her," she told the nymph, "and leave her anywhere."

"Yes, my lady," the nymph said. "By an orphanage? Or where else do you think she would be found?"

"Leave her to die," the goddess ordered, "and don't tell a soul."

The nymph, a small pine tree, looked at the goddess in shock, but bowed and then ran off with the baby.

_She doesn't want to do it_," Thalia thought. _I could probably convince her to-_

"Thalia," the goddess said firmly. "Don't. I know what you're thinking. Don't. She wasn't meant to be."

"Neither was I, my lady," the former lieutenant told her goddess. "But the fates willed it. And neither was Percy, but the fates willed it and look what he did!"

"Thalia-"

"You aren't my goddess anymore," Thalia said.

"But I am still _a _goddess, and you must listen to me like you would any other god."

She paused for a while, and then, with a smirk on her face, said, "Yes, my lady."

"What are you up to?"

"Nothing," Thalia said. "I must go, my lady. I'm awfully tired."

And she ran off through the trees in the direction the nymph ran off in.

Ω

After running through a freezing cold stream and accidentally meeting two bear cubs and their over-protective mother, Thalia finally caught up with the nymph who had apparently gotten tired and sat down on a rock to rest. She was looking at the baby with a sympathetic, but guilty look in her eyes when Thalia approached her.

"Are you going to?"

The nymph looked up in surprise noticing the former huntress for the first time.

"To what?" she asked.

"Kill _her_," Thalia said pointing at the baby girl resting peacefully in the nymph's arms. "Like my lady asked."

"She didn't tell me to kill her, she told me to-"

"-leave her to die," Thalia finished. "Is there a difference?"

"I guess not."

"Yeah."

"But I can't defy Lady Artemis." The nymph got up, moving towards Thalia; a pathetic attempt not to take the subordinate role.

Why am I doing this in the first place? Thalia thought. All she's done is break up the Hunters of Artemis, my family.

But then again, the baby hadn't, Lady Artemis had. Thalia knew she should have known that, she who had been told that she had caused chaos amongst the gods, inching them closer to possible death, or as close as a god can get to it, when all she had done was be born, and it wasn't like she had gotten any say in that.

"How about this," she said. "There aren't too many people around here, right?"

"You want me to leave her here."

"Yeah."

"But you'll-"

"Just leave her here. I'll take care of the rest."


	2. Chapter 2

At the first glance, you might think that Laura Strauss was just the typical foster mother. However, what you might not notice is that Laura's six foster children were half-bloods. Not only that, but Laura herself was a daughter of Apollo.

As she went in the front to turn off the last of the lights while the children slept, she sighed. She used to want to be a doctor, like her mother had been (which was what had attracted her father, a god of medicine, to her mother). She might have even gone on to med school, but it was then that Chiron asked her to do him a favor, a big one. He asked her to invest her savings in a house somewhere in New York to house the orphaned or unwanted half-bloods who weren't old enough for camp. She'd said it was a great idea, but no, she would go to med school. That was her decision, until, that is, she saw the children. Those poor dears, nowhere to go but that camp, no hope to experience a childhood.

If a child came to her unnamed, she would pick a name for it. Sometimes it was after a dead and unrecognized half-blood who had fought in the second Titan War, other times it was just a name that Laura liked.

Laura raised the children, telling them the Greek myths instead of stories like _Cinderella_ or _Goldilocks and the Three Bears_, and made sure they knew they were demigods long before they could even walk. If Laura knew the parentage of one of the children, so did they. If she knew that the child's mortal parent who hadn't wanted them died in a fire, she told them. She told them what traditionally half-bloods had not been told - the truth.

Laura turned off the last light and headed towards the kid's rooms to say goodnight. There were eight of them and she had two kids share a bedroom. Although at first Laura had been disappointed that each kid wouldn't be able to have their own room, she was pleasantly surprised by the close bond that always formed between roommates.

First, she went into Catherine and Annie's room. Laura didn't assign the kids their roommates at random. She would decide carefully by the children's personalities. It was rare that one of her kids would have a roommate close to their age. Most of the kids shared a room with a half-blood from two to six years apart from them. Annie and Catherine happened to be only one year apart, and best friends. It was such a shame that Catherine would be leaving for camp in only afew days. She was a couple weeks away from her twelfth birthday. Laura sent each child to camp at the age of twelve. She might be claimed sometime in the year before she was thirteen, but as Zeus had promised, all half-bloods had to be claimed by age thirteen.

Annie's father was Dionysus. Her mother was absolutely horrified that her "date" with the handsome man had turned into a baby, and brought her to Camp Half-Blood. From Camp Half-Blood, she was directed to Laura's house, where she left Annie not even telling Laura her name so Annie could know who she was.

Thalia, the lieutenant of Artemis, had left Catherine with Laura. Thalia had told her about the baby, a daughter of Artemis, whom Artemis had tried to dispose of before anyone knew. Laura had promised to send the baby, whom she named Catherine, to camp and not tell anyone but the children of the foster home Catherine's parentage. Laura never hid information from the children, and Catherine was no exception. Catherine knew who her mother was (but not who her father was) and although she understood why Artemis had wanted to kill her, in the back of her mind, she didn't.

Even though most of the children knew who their immortal parent was, they were still considered undetermined. They would tell each other that their immortal parent was so-and-so, but if a god, Chiron, or even a half-blood at camp (when Laura would bring them for short visits) asked them who their parent was, they would need to say they were undetermined until they were claimed. Since Percy Jackson made a deal with Zeus after the second Titan War, gods were supposed to claim their half-blood kids by their thirteenth birthday.

When Laura went into Catherine and Annie's room, she expected them both to be in bed, lights out, but Annie and Catherine were in the middle of the room talking.

"Girls, what are you doing up?" Laura stepped into the middle of the room. Catherine and Annie looked up. They were both sitting on the floor, a bunch of papers, pictures, and a few toys in between them.

"Just looking back." Annie threw a toy back into the toy chest. "I can't believe Catherine's leaving in, like, four days."

"Sorry, Annie, but it's three." Laura looked at the things on the rug. On the floor were a bunch of old photos, old papers, and various toys. "What are these?"

Catherine pointed to the papers on the ground.

"Remember when we were like seven? We made some kind of Friends Forever treaty. Just digging old stuff out."

Laura smiled as she noted that the Friends Forever Treaty had been ripped up and crumpled multiple times - probably when the girls got in a nasty fight and claimed they didn't want to be best friends anymore - but taped back together or flattened it out when they made up. It was written pen - blue ink. It was clear but the smudgy writing used in the first few words that they had attempted to write with Laura's fountain pen, but then switched to a regular uni-ball pen.

"Why don't you girls finish up in the morning," Laura advised. "It's getting late."

"Alright," Annie said. Both of them jumped into bed while Catherine muttered something about not being tired.

A few days came and went much faster than Catherine and Annie would have liked them to. The girls had asked Laura if both of them could be excused from the daily homeschooling in order for them to enjoy every last moment before Catherine's leaving day, but Laura told them that she thought it would be best for them to go about life as normally as possible.

Although Laura had been running her demigod sanctuary for years, leaving day never became routine. Whenever one of the children reached their a-few-days-before-their-twelfth-birthday point and had to be sent to Camp Half-Blood, it was like a mother watching her children go off to college. Well, after all that was pretty much what it was. Catherine's leaving day was no different. For eleven - almost twelve - years, Laura had been the only mother Catherine knew, and the only mother she would most likely ever know. Catherine, to Laura, was her little baby girl no matter what.

Laura had been mother to enough demigods to know to keep the night before leaving day, which was the good-bye celebration day, sad, but not to act like it was Catherine's funeral. Laura liked to make sure to keep her emotions balanced and not break down in front of the children. It didn't mean she wouldn't act sad. She would just make sure not to break down and start sobbing or anything that extreme. She tried to keep a stiff upper lip in front of the children at all times no matter what the occasion mainly because she felt like it was her duty to be the kids' knight in shining armor, their hero, not a weak woman taking care of them. To the children, when the dinner before another child's leaving day came, it was a bittersweet moment. They would miss the child that had been their sibling for many years, but Laura made sure she kept the "We're sad to see you go, we'll miss you terribly, we'll make sure to write, but this is going to be a great life for you, good luck" mood and the children followed suite.

The night before Catherine's leaving day, Laura made honey baked ham - Catherine's favorite - and throughout the meal the family talked about old memories involving Catherine. Laura liked discussing these memories partly because she was able to find things out that she would not have otherwise found out about. For instance, Maia talked about the time she and Catherine had been playing a bit of dress up (Maia was a daughter of Aphrodite and had probably forced Catherine into it) and accidentally torn one of Laura's dresses. One of her _good _dresses. Terrified, they had buried it and pretended not to know a thing weeks later when Laura was wondering here it went.

"Oh!" Laura laughed. "So _that's _where it went!"

"I'd forgotten all about that," Catherine said. She looked over at Annie. "How about the time when we were like six or seven and we ran away into that hideout in the woods we made so we didn't need to do math."

"Oh yeah," Annie said. "It was time for second half of classes and Laura called us into the dining room and found that note we'd written her."

"What did it say?"

"Uh...I think it said something like, 'We were killed by monsters and our ghosts are writing this note.' Of course, completely unbelievable."

"I remember that like it was yesterday," Laura said. "Of course, I knew where that hideout was and was certain you would be there."

All the children smiled at the memory. That was another thing about Laura. While most parents would have gotten angry at their children and forced them inside, Laura let them stay outside. At first, Catherine and Annie had been relieved that they wouldn't have to do that dreaded math, but then they discovered the plan behind Laura's relaxed reaction to their rebellious behavior. After a few hours when both girls grew hungry, Laura's reply was, "Only girls who do math get to have dinner."

That memory also showed where Catherine and Annie were different. After Laura told them that, Annie had come in and done her daily math sheet immediately while Catherine stayed outside in the hideout and refused to give in. She would have stayed there all night had not Annie come and convinced her otherwise. Catherine was a rebel at heart and although Laura didn't say this aloud, she knew that Catherine's rebellious attitude was from her mother, Artemis. The difference was that Artemis, as a goddess, was admired for her way of going against things while Catherine, as a mortal, would need to learn to go with the flow which would not be easy.

That was because Catherine was incredibly negative. She wasn't exactly pessimistic, but it was Catherine who would roll her eyes when one of the smaller children was watching _Dora the Explorer_ which was always followed by a comment like, "This is stupid," "Babyish," or "This girl is such an idiot." She was also the one who would always manage to find something to complain about. This, however, wasn't something Laura was worried abut. Catherine complained to her family, and knew not to complain or grumble with the friends she would make at Camp Half-Blood. The chronic complaining...It was just one of those things that one is comfortable doing with the people they are familiar with. For instance, Laura's mortal brother (a son of Laura's mother, but not a son of Apollo) had enjoyed disgusting the family by burping the alphabet, something he wouldn't even think of doing anywhere else but at home.

Laura knew that for Catherine, the transition might not be easy. It wouldn't be easy for Laura either. Although Chiron had told her that her job was to raise children, she knew that the true challenge of it was letting them go. She wondered what the reaction would be when Artemis claimed her. Artemis, who had not sworn on the Styx to keep her virginity, would not be punished in any way for having born a child, but the reaction would be...something. Laura wondered if the goddess's huntresses knew about Catherine. She wondered if Artemis knew that Catherine was still alive. She wondered what her home would be without Catherine. She wondered what Catherine's life would be without Laura and the other children. Only time would tell.


End file.
